Metal oxides and metals with oxide coatings are used to make various materials and components, including separation substrates for liquid and gas chromatography, substrates for capillary zone electrophoresis, biosensors, microelectronic devices, catalysts, fillers, and pigments. For many of these applications, it is desirable to modify the metal oxide surface, for example, by altering the adsorption, adhesion, wettability, or catalytic properties of the surface.
One way to modify a metal oxide surface is to attach to hydroxyl groups on the surface silane compounds having desired functional groups. Chlorosilanes and alkoxysilanes have been used for such surface modification. The use of these silane compounds can be problematic, however, because chlorosilanes and alkoxysilanes are moisture sensitive and sometimes act as corrosive agents. In addition, the reaction of chlorosilanes with metal oxide surfaces generates hydrochloric acid as a by-product, and the hydrochloric acid may corrode the modified metal oxide surfaces. Furthermore, some chlorosilanes and alkoxysilanes do not react with metal oxide surfaces.